Our performance & reporting

Attracting more visitors. Increasing spend. Contributing more to the economy. A small, focused, highly effective agency, we consistently ensure our activity really counts, exceeding targets set by Government, adding value to the English and British tourism industry and the English and British economy.

VisitBritain/VisitEngland achievements 2016/17

For every £1 the Government has invested in VisitBritain/VisitEngland for domestic and international marketing, a visitor spends £20 here in Britain.

In 2016/17 we saw a 25% increase in VisitBritain Shop's profit, with £2.23 million which has been invested back into marketing Britain. We brought in £20 million in partnership revenue, both cash and in-kind, and boosted visitor spending in the UK with an additional £872 million, attributed to our domestic and international activities.

Domestic tourism performance

In 2016, visitor spend in England totalled £92 billion accounting for over 80% of the visitor spend total for the UK, and 2.6m English jobs are supported by the tourism industry. Domestic tourism in England is the key driver behind this, with domestic overnight and day visits together contributing £72bn, with 76% of domestic tourism expenditure taking place outside of London.

Staycations are growing, with number of 4+ night domestic trips increasing by over 20%

99.3m domestic overnight trips were taken in England in 2016

£18.5 bn was spent on domestic overnight trips in England in 2016

Domestic day visitors spent £53bn in 2016/17

In 2016 tourism day visits reached 1.6bn, up 4% on last year

In total, domestic day visitors spent £53.5bn in 2016 (flat on year before)

2% growth in visits to visitor attractions, the 4th consecutive year of increased volumes

Inbound tourism performance

In 2016, the UK achieved a record £22.5bn in inbound visitor spend, up 2% in nominal terms on 2015. Also up 4% on 2015 were total overseas visits, reaching 37.6mn in 2016. In the first seven months of 2017 alone, the UK achieved 23.1m inbound visits – up 8% on last year – with July 2017 the first month ever to record 4m visits to the UK.

Key facts

Overseas visitors to the UK spent £22.5 billion in 2016

£713 was spent by inbound tourists per second in Britain in 2016

Visits to Britain grew by almost double the European average in 2016

Edinburgh was the second most visited city in the UK, with 1.7m inbound visits, spending £822m. Manchester was third, with 1.2m visits spending £475m. Cardiff welcomed 357,000 visits, spending £110m.

Scotland welcomed 451,000 visits from its top inbound market the USA in 2016, up 10% on 2015.

Germany was the leading source market for regional England in visits terms in 2016, with 1.5m visits.

For Wales, Ireland was the top market in visits terms, with 169,000 visits, up 31% on 2015.

Awards

Pixel Awards

Best Global Partnership for the Social Travel Summit Inverness at the PR Week Global awards - May 2017

Marketing Campaign of the Year SME for our GREAT China naming campaign at the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards - April 2016

Gold in the Service Quality category for our Northern Tourism Growth Fund at the China Tourist Welcome (CTW) Awards presented by China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) - April 2016

Best Experiential Marketing Campaign for our GREAT China naming campaign at The Travel Marketing Awards - March 2016.

Gold award for 'Best integrated campaign’ with Tourism Ireland at the 2015 MEPRAs (Middle East Public Relations Awards)

Placed fourth out of the top 40 Best Public Relations Marketing Campaigns at the 2015 Global SABRE Awards for GREAT China Naming campaign - October 2015

Best Integrated Campaign award for GREAT China Naming campaign at The Drum Dream awards - October 2015

Honourable mention in the PR Daily's 2015 Digital PR & Social Media Awards for our InstaMeet on the Move project - August 2015

Communicator Award for Lovewall website - August 2015

Two gold and one silver award for GREAT China Naming campaign at the Cannes Lion D’Or - June 2015

Gold award for Sounds of Great Britain at the International Tourism Film Festival – April 2015

People’s Champ Award for VisitBritain’s Tumblr at the Pixel Awards – April 2015